Commercials that are popular that you ignore

[US81]

Also, pickup drivers are way more rude and unsafe than drivers of other vehicle types, in my experience.

No match for soccer moms in SUVs at the mall parking lot.

My experience is that the soccer moms are distracted, oblivious and entitled - on the cell-phone and doing stuff to the kids instead of actually driving the vehicle. There is a subgroup of pick-up truck drivers (maybe it's just in TX) who are the really aggressive road rage types. The soccer mom will cut me off because she has no clue I'm there. ("Mirrors? They're for checking my lipstick, right?") Certain pick-up drivers (often with gun racks and 'truck nuts') will cut me off or tailgate dangerously, deliberately, because it's somehow an insult to their manhood if they don't "own the road."

I try to give them both a lot of room.

[kphoger]

Agreed.

[Pete from Boston]

There's an elementary school on my street and where I live is more or less claimed as as line-up zone for pick-up/drop-off.  I see every kind of "soccer mom" and "soccer dad" (lest the near-total gender purity here allow anyone to forget there are plenty of both).  And the most clear fact is, you too would be distracted if you had to get a carful of kids to do anything, including just sit there.

[kphoger]

I have three children.  I still manage to drive like a civilized human being.

[Pete from Boston]

You're a champ.  Lots of people don't manage as well as you.  I'm sure most do.

[roadman65]

Lawyer ads, especially the one who dominates all of Florida with his "I am not just a lawyer, I'm your lawyer." in his radio ads.

[US81]

There's an elementary school on my street and where I live is more or less claimed as as line-up zone for pick-up/drop-off.  I see every kind of "soccer mom" and "soccer dad" (lest the near-total gender purity here allow anyone to forget there are plenty of both).  And the most clear fact is, you too would be distracted if you had to get a carful of kids to do anything, including just sit there.

You're right; I should've worded more carefully regarding "soccer moms."  I did not mean to malign all mothers who drive, all parents who drive SUVs or indeed all mothers of children who play soccer.

There exists a subgroup of distracted drivers in big SUVs who are often driving several children, and yes children can require attention while the vehicle is in motion. When my children were young I found it necessary, on rare occasions, to find a safe place to stop, then stop and deal with the problem rather than deal with something complex while also driving. I think there are some parental 'chauffeurs' who never consider stopping the vehicle as a safe alternative - perhaps because they are not aware of the degree to which the distraction has impaired their driving performance.  They may drift out of their lane or cut someone off not out of malice but out of inattentiveness due to the demands their child passengers are making.

[kphoger]

There's an elementary school on my street and where I live is more or less claimed as as line-up zone for pick-up/drop-off.  I see every kind of "soccer mom" and "soccer dad" (lest the near-total gender purity here allow anyone to forget there are plenty of both).  And the most clear fact is, you too would be distracted if you had to get a carful of kids to do anything, including just sit there.

You're right; I should've worded more carefully regarding "soccer moms."  I did not mean to malign all mothers who drive, all parents who drive SUVs or indeed all mothers of children who play soccer.

There exists a subgroup of distracted drivers in big SUVs who are often driving several children, and yes children can require attention while the vehicle is in motion. When my children were young I found it necessary, on rare occasions, to find a safe place to stop, then stop and deal with the problem rather than deal with something complex while also driving. I think there are some parental 'chauffeurs' who never consider stopping the vehicle as a safe alternative - perhaps because they are not aware of the degree to which the distraction has impaired their driving performance.  They may drift out of their lane or cut someone off not out of malice but out of inattentiveness due to the demands their child passengers are making.

Likewise, I was using "soccer mom" as a very generic term.  I've actually encountered more problems with drivers who fit the profile but didn't actually have children in the car.  Usually they were running errands while the kids were at school.  (I used to work in a parking lot.)  I think it's the sense of power that an SUV gives, making this type of driver feel unstoppable.

[renegade]

The spoof commercials posted earlier on this thread remind me of this one for "Passages Malibu"

It's a real place, but every time that commercial comes on and I hear the part where the guy says "I should know, I was an addict for 10 years, now I'm not" I feel like I'm watching some spoof on a comedy show.

[snip video]

That guy lies:  He's still an addict ... he's addicted to money.

[Pete from Boston]

The spoof commercials posted earlier on this thread remind me of this one for "Passages Malibu"

It's a real place, but every time that commercial comes on and I hear the part where the guy says "I should know, I was an addict for 10 years, now I'm not" I feel like I'm watching some spoof on a comedy show.

[snip video]

That guy lies:  He's still an addict ... he's addicted to money.

Those ads piss me off because few addicts I've known are in a position to buy a stay at some luxury feel-better spa.  Access to good treatment is so damn hard (addiction and retaining money tend to be exclusive of one another, and with the free options one usually gets what one pays for) and here's this lavish all-it-takes-is-a-bunch-of-money "solution" available to few, playing out like a warm and fuzzy viagra ad.

[kphoger]

* kphoger wonders how many of these commercials are actually popular . . . and how one even knows if a commercial is popular or not.

[roadman65]

Well in Florida anybody living here can say who are the most advertised lawyers over the one's not so much or even moderate.

When it comes to restaurants its a regional thing in each TV/Radio market.  Being we have people from all over the US and Canada here, that one I could see your point.

I know with Lawyers each state and metro area has different firms, so yes the one's in Orlando won't be in Houston.  Although Charley Crist's employer shocked me when I saw a billboard of him on US 19 in Atlanta back in 06.  However, still  I do not think one firm (yet) has licenses in all 50 states.

[jeffandnicole]

* kphoger wonders how many of these commercials are actually popular . . . and how one even knows if a commercial is popular or not.

One thing I remember from a business class in school: We see ads every day.  Commercials on TV & Radio.  Printed classified in the smallest of weekly newspapers we get via mail.  And we wonder...does anyone read this stuff.

To put it simply: If that ad wasn't making money, the company wouldn't be paying to have that ad on TV, Radio, or printed.

So while the commercial may be meaningless to me or you, most likely it's making money for the company.

[kphoger]

I know. But the OP asked specifically about popular commercials. For the sake of the thread, I don't think we should consider every commercial to be popular.

[roadman65]

What is popular?  Each area has its own.  Nationally, yes, I guess you can say that Geico Insurance with their cornball ads is quite popular in all areas.

As far as the technique is, the old saying goes "Corn sells."  Not the one's that grow on stalks the cliche describes either.  We tend to remember the one's that are off beat in our minds and like jeffandnicole said if they were not effective they would not be making money.

Sad to say with annoying telemarketers the same thing.  We all ask why they bug the hell out of us with them calling each and every day.  Why? Because they are selling to some people and enough to make them a handsome profit and enough to share a commission with the one who sells you directly on the phone.  So actually its the idiots who patronize the telemarketers and not the businesses themselves that are to blame for their disturbances in our private lives.

[apjung]

I hate commercials that insist on saying this century as "two thousand", I absolutely can not believe that the gentleman in the Rooms To Go TV commercial is saying the year 2020 as "two thousand twenty!"
I see it in some car commercials. A few notable exceptions are the Toyota corporate commercials where they are now saying "twenty" instead of "two thousand" and I give them Kudos for that.

Ray Brandt auto dealerships commercials here in New Orleans because this announcer insist on using "two thousand."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niNG89qZq2o
For a few months when the 2010 models came out he was calling them as "oh ten!"

This has got to stop with people saying this century as "two thousand." People didn't say the previous century as "one thousand nine hundred" (ie. saying the year 1999 as "one thousand nine hundred ninety nine")! If this keeps going on people will be saying "two thousand" all the way to the year 2099! It's just another pet peeve of mine.

[dcbjms]

Anything selling prescription medications, because I can't watch them without thinking of the side effects.  Case in point:

There's so much wrong with that ad it actually makes me laugh, even when I ignore all the others (including several OTC meds, like laxatives and Zantac).

[Pete from Boston]

I hate commercials that insist on saying this century as "two thousand", I absolutely can not believe that the gentleman in the Rooms To Go TV commercial is saying the year 2020 as "two thousand twenty!"
I see it in some car commercials. A few notable exceptions are the Toyota corporate commercials where they are now saying "twenty" instead of "two thousand" and I give them Kudos for that.

Ray Brandt auto dealerships commercials here in New Orleans because this announcer insist on using "two thousand."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niNG89qZq2o
For a few months when the 2010 models came out he was calling them as "oh ten!"

This has got to stop with people saying this century as "two thousand." People didn't say the previous century as "one thousand nine hundred" (ie. saying the year 1999 as "one thousand nine hundred ninety nine")! If this keeps going on people will be saying "two thousand" all the way to the year 2099! It's just another pet peeve of mine.

I say two thousand.  I don't expect to change this.  Sorry.

[slorydn1]

I find my self referring to my Mustang as a twenty fourteen and my wife's as a twenty twelve, yet for the years 2001-2009 I had pretty much been referring to years by the 2 digit number like we did in the 1980's and 1990's. For example I graduated high school in 1988, and we were the class of eighty-eight so the 2004 F-150 I traded in for my Mustang is an oh-four. I just couldn't bring myself to say twenty oh-four, it just didn't sound right. But now that we are well into the teens twenty fifteen just sounds.....right.

Back to the topic, though,  today I was watching Daytona 500 practice while surfing the net at the same time and and that Chrysler commercial came on where the narrator says something in German 3 times about the best cars come from Germany (or something like that) and then says in English with a heavy German accent "I've said it 3 times and its still not true..." That commercial drives me nuts for some reason, although I really don't know why.

Hey, at least they put up a half baked BGS with I-75 Detroit on it, LOL.

[Pete from Boston]

A guy who does periodic radio spots here says "two fourteen," "two fifteen."

[roadman65]

I hate commercials that insist on saying this century as "two thousand", I absolutely can not believe that the gentleman in the Rooms To Go TV commercial is saying the year 2020 as "two thousand twenty!"
I see it in some car commercials. A few notable exceptions are the Toyota corporate commercials where they are now saying "twenty" instead of "two thousand" and I give them Kudos for that.

Ray Brandt auto dealerships commercials here in New Orleans because this announcer insist on using "two thousand."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niNG89qZq2o
For a few months when the 2010 models came out he was calling them as "oh ten!"

This has got to stop with people saying this century as "two thousand." People didn't say the previous century as "one thousand nine hundred" (ie. saying the year 1999 as "one thousand nine hundred ninety nine")! If this keeps going on people will be saying "two thousand" all the way to the year 2099! It's just another pet peeve of mine.

I say two thousand.  I don't expect to change this.  Sorry.

There is an old saying.  You say tomatoe (two mate toe) and I say (two mot toe).

[formulanone]

Anything selling prescription medications, because I can't watch them without thinking of the side effects.

I like to watch them, and take side bets to see if the side effects are actually worse than the initial aliment.

In some cases, severe palpitations, temporary paralysis, and in rare cases, death...have been reported.

Ah, no thanks, I'll deal with my eczema. (Note: I don't have eczema.)

[admtrap]

Drug ads always make me think of this little video;

[dcbjms]

I like to watch them, and take side bets to see if the side effects are actually worse than the initial aliment.

And a lot of times, they usually are, although there are some weird ones as well, such as in that Farxiga ad, where a common reported side effect is "runny nose".

[apjung]

Yes, I wish prescription drug ads would once again be illegal. I don't need a damn commercial telling me to nag my doctor who should know about what medication I need.

No commercials would mean lower prescription drug costs.